Funded by a large grant from the NEF, ‘Your Voice Matters. What’s Your Story?’ is a multifaceted project that creates a platform for the Needham High School community to share their stories and connect with one another, while also creating spaces for students to think critically and empathically. The authors of the grant, Kate Bergeron, Robyn Briggs, and Nicole Burnor, worked closely with Maria Sartori and other members of the FPA department to make this project come alive.
The project involves the creation of a professional gallery space at the high school which will have rotating exhibitions of student artwork based around various themes. The first exhibition is to be a Fine & Performing Arts (FPA) Department curated art show, ‘Your Voice Matters, What’s Your Story?’ centered around the theme of empathy as it relates to equity.
While this inaugural exhibition was unable to take place in April as planned, many other components of the project have been accomplished and the work continues. According to the grant writers, before the abrupt COVID interruption last spring, they collaborated with a Boston-based community project duo, The Cauldron, who hosted a workshop on the high school’s One Day and taught a Master Class with the Senior Studios students. They also organized a FPA Department field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the exhibition, Women Take the Floor. In addition, Senior Studios students collaborated to design and work on a permanent mural installation at Needham High School.
The grant writers also began, before the schools shut down, to order supplies for the new gallery space for visual and digital arts, Gallery 450’s, to be created in the new wing of the high school. These include items such as hanging supplies and display cases as well as a TV to exhibit digital art. They now continue to work on ordering supplies for the new gallery space.
And there are more benefits to come from this innovative program. As Nicole Burnor put it, “We are also looking forward to collaborating with Own Your Peace and to continue creating spaces for our students to build community and foster the value of diversity.”
